Opinion: Romney Is Still Hiding The Ball
Hidden in the thousands of pages that W. Mitt Romney shared with the John McCain campaign but will not share with voters is information about the millions of dollars he has made in foreign income.
Between 2005 and 2010, while Governor of Massachusetts and a candidate for President of the United States, Romney made approximately $25 million in foreign income according to an analysis of Romney's 2010 tax return done by the Huffington Post.
It is unheard of for a candidate for president to have made $25 million in foreign income over their lifetime, let alone over a six year period.
It is even more shocking that a presidential candidate would not disclose the sources of his foreign wealth. But W. Mitt Romney refuses to disclose the source of that income.
The call for Romney to be more open with voters about his taxes is not just a view of Democrats or the Obama campaign. More than 60 percent of voters believe Romney should be more forthcoming.
Included in that group is William Kristol, the conservative thinker and founder of the Weekly Standard that is the center of right wing strategy. He and the magazine pushed the George W. Bush candidacy and Paul Ryan's inclusion on the current ticket as well as policy objectives.
Previously Mr. Kristol has joined in the bipartisan calls for Romney to release more tax records.
He expounded on that belief on C-SPAN, saying "I think it just seems kinda weird that he pays a lower rate than an awful lot of middle-class people."
Krisol joined Democrats in expressing the belief that the tax code should not differentiate between capital gains and ordinary income and that the carried interest loophole that Romney has benefited from should be eliminated.
While Romney avoids releasing more returns the campaign did say that Romney's 2011 returns would be released by October 15.
When Romney releases his 2011 return he must also release any revisions to previous years returns as well. One of the likely reasons Romney needed an extension is that he is modifying previous returns to "clean up" any information that will shed light on the sources of his foreign income.
It is likely that one of the reasons that it is taking longer for Romney's returns to be ready is that a lot of the politically embarrassing financial information is being pushed to prior years – more accounting gimmicks to hide the embarrassing financial information Romney is hiding.
It makes you wonder: why is W. Mitt Romney afraid voters will find out the sources of his foreign income?
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
